Learning to Play Jingle Bells on the Guitar

Jingle Bells is one of the best-known and commonly sung American songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont and published under the title “One Horse Open Sleigh” in the autumn of 1857.

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December 17th, 2018

This song is usually played in C, the first key most of you learned when you started playing. Here are the basic chords for the first verse and chorus:

C                                             F

Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh,

G7                                     C

O’er the fields we go, laughing all the way.

C                                     F

Bells on bobtails ring, making spirits bright.

G7                                              C

What fun it is to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight, oh,

Chorus:

C                                         C7

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

F             C               D7             G7

Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh, hey,

C                                         C7

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,

F             C               G7             C

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.

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